Nuclear Materials and Energy

The open-access journal Nuclear Materials and Energy is devoted to the growing field of research for material application in the production of nuclear energy. Nuclear Materials and Energy publishes original research articles of up to 6 pages in length. Nuclear Materials and Energy is supported scientifically by the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany for two reasons:

Nuclear Materials and Energy is the first fully open-access journal in this field. The Max-Planck-Society has started the Open-Access Initiative in 2003 realizing that a stable, competitive, and quality-assured OA publication system offers immense benefits to the research community. Particularly research using public funding has the responsibility to make results freely available to all interested readers.

At the same time it is of paramount importance that the transition to OA must preserve or even improve the quality standards of the present subscription-based model. The Journal adopts a rigorous peer-reviewing policy to guarantee high quality standards. A broad Editorial Board of renowned experts covering the full scope of the journal helps in the evaluation of submitted manuscripts.

The scientific support by the Max-Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik also underlines its contribution to the field of research on plasma-facing materials and determines the scientific scope of the Journal. The emphasis will be on materials employed in reactors where they are exposed to extreme environments in terms of radiation, temperature and corrosive conditions. The main topics are:

• Fusion reactor materials, including plasma-facing components, blankets, insulators and magnets.• Material erosion and transport in the boundary of fusion plasmas and its effect on the incident plasma conditions.• Interaction of plasmas, ion beams, electron beams and intense heat fluxes with materials with emphasis on lifetime, tritium retention and permeation, and structural stability.• Reactor materials enduring radiation doses at very high temperature far beyond the capability of materials now available for components, but excluding fuel cycle, actinide compounds, and nuclear waste.• The material behaviour in the interaction with reactor coolants during normal operation and in accidental conditions. • Materials behaviour addressing the release of fuel, activated dust and reaction products during accidental conditions, and the physical and chemical interactions of reactor core and containment materials.• Neutron and charged particle radiation effects in materials, including defects, gas retention and permeation, transmutations, microstructural changes, phase changes and macroscopic properties.

The manuscript must contain new experimental results as well as theoretical evaluations and computer simulations. The manuscript must focus on materials science and engineering related to application in nuclear energy production. Thus, all topics within nuclear science and engineering or materials science and engineering without relevance to energy production do not necessarily fall within the scope.

The Journal is dedicated to original research manuscripts with a maximum length of six journal pages. The Journal can stimulate research and interest by soliciting invited reviews also exceeding the 6 page limit.